Most Dangerous Countries

At RealClearLife Rebecca Gibian provides tips for travellers visiting the world’s most dangerous places:

When most people plan a trip, they’re thinking mostly about things like the architectural wonders, sun-kissed beaches, or powder-covered ski runs they will enjoy at their destination. Any thoughts for personal comfort and security are typically limited to making sure you have a valid passport, spare cash, appropriate shoes, and maybe be on the lookout for pickpockets. Whether or not your trip abroad risks injury, kidnapping, or possibly even death, on the other hand, isn’t on most people’s minds.

But for a lot of journalists, intense contingency planning to avoid such fates while traveling the world is all part of the job. When reporting from places like Mexico, Syria, or the Democratic Republic of Congo, journalists are exposed to everything from violent crime to abduction to actual combat. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 46 journalists were killed in 2017 while 262 were imprisoned worldwide. And since 1992, fifty-nine journalists have gone missing.

It struck me that she only gave passing mention to the places that are actually the most dangerous. According to most sources the most dangerous countries in the world in terms of intentional homicides are, in descending order of danger:

1. Brazil
2. Mexico
3. Venezuela
4. United States

with my natal home of St. Louis by far the most dangerous city in the United States, the only U. S. city in the top 20. I’d be willing to bet that where I spent my formative years is within a dozen blocks of where many of the murders occur.

But consider that list again. Now consider it in the light of the remark I’ve dropped here from time to time: I think the U. S. has more in common with Brazil or Mexico than it does with the United Kingdom, France, or Germany. Comparing us with those latter countries is pretentious.

I also wonder whether one of the bits of advice given by the author (“Do your research”) pertains to journalists visiting St. Louis. I suspect not.